Frank Steele

MI6 officer who created back-channel to Irish republicans and later headed Middle East operations.

MI6 officer, active in the Middle East and Africa, who opened contacts with the IRA in the early 1970s.

Early Life 

Frank Fenwick Steele was born in Bangalore on 11 February 1923, the son of Frank Robert and Mary Fenwick Steele (ref 5). He attended St Peter's School, York and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he studied mathematics (ref 5).

From 1943 to 1947, he undertook military service with the REME, for part of which he was posted to Malaya (ref 5). He then joined the Colonial Service, serving as an assistant district commissioner in the West Nile district of Northern Uganda from 1948 to 1950 (ref 5).